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The Bofors scam was one of India’s biggest political scandals that happened between India and Sweden in 1980s and 1990s. It majorly involved politicians from the Congress party, primarily implicating the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and several people from the Swedish government. These people were accused of receiving kickbacks from a bank called Bofors AB, which is majorly financed by the Wallenberg family's Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken. It was done to win a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer, a short gun for firing shells on high trajectories at low velocities.

It is considered to be the biggest arms deal ever to have happen in Sweden. The scale of the corruption was so devastating that it directly led to the defeat of the Gandhi's Congress party in the 1989 general elections. Bofors paid Rs 640 million in the form of kickbacks to top Indian politicians and important defense officials.

The case was first exposed when Vishwanath Pratap Singh was the defense minister. It came to light through investigative journalism carried out by the Reuters news revealing thins on the Swedish radio, followed by N. Ram and his team of The Hindu newspaper. Another journalist, Chitra Subramaniam secured over 350 documents with detailed the payoffs.